Senior Evaluation Specialists

Senior Evaluation Specialists, Performance Evaluation of the Healthy Outcomes through Prevention Education (HOPE) Program, Kenya

Company Profile:  MSI is a Washington, D.C.-based international development firm providing specialized short- and long-term technical assistance.

Since its 1981 founding, MSI has grown in size and technical scope, now implementing and managing more than 70 projects worldwide.



More than 30 are long-term, many in conflict-prone or fragile states that include Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and South Sudan.

Today, our range of technical expertise includes analytical and field projects in democracy and governance, economic growth, strategic planning, organizational capacity building, health and the justice sector.

MSI focuses on helping our local partners foster progress, manage change and improve the effectiveness of development assistance.

We expanded our global footprint in 2008 by becoming part of Coffey, a leading geoscience, international development and project management firm, and a publicly traded company on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Alongside the international development arm of Coffey, MSI has corporate offices in 17 countries.

Together, MSI and Coffey employ more than 1,400 professionals worldwide.

Project/Proposal Summary:

The USAID-funded Healthy Outcomes through Prevention Education (HOPE) program aims to improve students’ HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes and practices through peer, school, and community-based interventions.

The four-year program works with a wide diversity of schools across Nairobi and its environs, including informal and formal primary and secondary schools, and surrounding communities.

The overall purpose of the HOPE performance evaluation is to conduct a midterm assessment of the program to assist USAID to make any necessary programmatic amendments.

The evaluation will also provide information on the extent to which the project’s objectives and goals have been achieved, and the means by which this has occurred.

Position Summary:

MSI is seeking to hire two team members for this position.

The evaluation team member will be responsible for participating in assessing and analyzing the project results against evaluation questions, and producing a high-quality report that documents findings, conclusions and recommendations.

This short term assignment will start with desk review on, or around April 15, 2014 (mobilizing in the field o/a May 1, 2014), and be of approximately six to eight weeks’ duration.

This period will include at least three weeks of field work in Nairobi, Kenya.

Responsibilities:
Play an active part in completing responsibilities assigned by the team leader
Finalize the evaluation design and data collection tools, coordinate activities and arrange meetings
Participate in the process of assembling the final findings and recommendations into a high quality document
Assist in the preparation and presentation of key evaluation findings and recommendations to USAID/Kenya and other stakeholders
Submit all deliverables required in the expected timeline.
Qualifications:
Master’s degree or higher in education, health education, or an applied research field
Professional training and experience participating in evaluation teams
Evaluation design experience, including the selection of appropriate data collection methods on a question specific basis and development of a detailed data analysis plan.
Basic social science research skills and basic statistics, including strong data visualization skills consistent with USAID expectations
Field experience with USAID projects that includes the following:
Survey research experience, including development of structured and semi-structured interview and/or observation instrument; sample size determination for specific confidence levels and confidence intervals; and selection and use of other survey data;
Structured or semi-structured group interviews and/or focus groups, including the creation of written instruments and transcripts for same; content analysis and other techniques for coding and transforming group/open-ended data into analyzed information.
Applied experience with non-experimental theory testing techniques for examining program/project effects (baseline reconstruction, outcome mapping, contribution analysis and/or others).
Proven experience preparing high quality documents and meeting deliverable deadlines
Experience conducting gender analysis for health/education programs highly desirable
Experience evaluating USAID programs required;
Experience in East Africa highly desirable; willingness to travel and work in informal settlements in Nairobi required
Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted.

No phone calls, please.

To apply: Please visit our website, www.msiworldwide.com